Bilge Pump, repair or replace?

[RobertaMoss]

I have a 1978 Cape Dory 28. The manual bilge pump is not working. Given its location, it seems difficult to work on it. Should I try to install a new diaphragm or would it be easier to just install a new gusher?

[Frenchy]

Hi Roberta, - My manual pump was also difficult to get to and remove -it's mounted in the starboard cockpit locker area.
These pumps, once removed from the boat, are easy to work on and have few things that can go wrong. My pump
was installed backwards and was trying to pump the Atlantic Ocean into the bilge- the yard or previous owner apparently goofed and didn't check.
This is actually easy to do if you're not careful. The other things that can go wrong is :
1. a ruptured diaphram and 2. a small piece of debris lodged in one of the rubber inlet or outlet valves.
I would say by all means, try to fix the pump you have. It very well could be clogged with a bit of debris
and just needs to be cleaned. Good luck, Jean

[robh]

I had this issue as well, the diaphragm on my gusher 8 ripped and I had to remove the pump to replace it. Of course, a week later one of the plastic flanges to hold the top of the pump to the handle broke, and I had to simply pull the entire unit and replace with a new gusher pump.

If you can repair the pump with a reconditioning kit, it is much easier than filling and drilling new screw holes for a new pump. The new gusher10/titans do not line up with the old gusher 8 holes that are on my cape dory 28 1979 #245. Since I had to replace the pump, it meant filling and drilling new holes, which was more challenging than simply reconditioning the existing pump.

My pump was also located in the starboard cockpit aft, so the handle, when the pump is worked, has its range of motion behind the tiller. Working on it meant finding a friend to use the screwdriver in the cockpit while I was lying in the starboard locker to hold the nuts for the bolts holding the pump in place.